His report said the projected deficit should have been $238 million, not the $211 million then-minister Graham Steele reported when he tabled the budget April 3.

“It was already known that the deficit included as part of the 2012-13 budget was unachievable when the budget was presented to the public,” said Lapointe’s report.

The opposition blasted the government for not being straight with the budget numbers, while Premier Darrell Dexter and Finance Maureen MacDonald said they did nothing wrong.

Lapointe said his office was told about the error during its annual review of the budget estimates in February, in time for it to be corrected.

He said his office suggested to Finance Department management that they tell cabinet “of this known error prior to approving the estimates, and this was done.”

It was the Treasury Board, which includes some but not all cabinet ministers, that learned of the error, on March 28, Lapointe said.

Dexter and MacDonald, who took the post on May 30, said Wednesday that no one told them about the $27-million mistake before the budget was tabled.

“Look, simply not true,” Dexter said on the question of cabinet being informed.

“I have no recollection or had no information about anything with respect to the question of a budget difference before us.”

The premier and minister talked about budget information constantly coming into the Finance Department, and officials have to pick a cut-off date for calculating the estimates.

MacDonald said last year that she believed “that the policy wasn’t to have a cut-off date and that’s why this occurred.”

However, department spokeswoman Michelle Lucas later said in an email that the cut-off was Jan. 31.

MacDonald said she wasn’t sure the department could establish the date when the error was discovered or when it was discussed with the auditor general.

“I don’t believe there was any intention to deceive anyone. Having added in that $27 million or not adding it in would not have made any difference to the bottom line.”

She said she learned about the discrepancy after she became minister, and it was reflected in the September budget update. As of December, the province was projecting a $277-million deficit for the current fiscal year.

“It’s actually a very serious breach of parliamentary privilege because the government has presented a budget before the legislature, before the public, that it knew at the time was false,” said Younger.

“At the end of the day, the premier lied to the people of Nova Scotia.”

The lack of transparency will make it difficult to believe the budget the Dexter government brings forward in the spring, he said.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie said the government can’t be trusted on the budget.

“The fact that revenues were overstated by $27 million just shows the fallacy of the budget that the NDP have presented this year, and is both unfair to today’s voters, but also unfair to the next generation,” Baillie said.

Lapointe said the $27-million error last year mainly resulted from not using update economic assumptions and a change in adjusting calendar-year revenues to fiscal year.

Dexter said if Lapointe was concerned, he could have noted it in comments on revenue estimates that is included in each budget.

It was not in the letter because the amount was below the $90-million threshold for qualifying his opinion, Lapointe said.

However, he said the amount was significant enough that the Finance Department should have corrected it, and he told them so.

The department has agreed to Lapointe’s recommendation to pick a date in the revenue estimates process before which “all known non-trivial errors are corrected.”

Lapointe also repeated his concern from a year ago about the government piling up debt, outside of emergencies or for funding large projects, questioning whether it is ethical to saddle future generations with the payments.

New Democrat backbencher Howard Epstein excoriated him for raising the issue last year, saying it was outside his mandate.

On Wednesday, MacDonald said she shared Lapointe’s concern about debts and deficits.

“That’s why we’re on a four-year plan to move the province back to balance,” she said.

“I guess I would say that in a recession and in periods of extraordinarly slow growth in the economy, it is incumbent on governments to use their fiscal capacity to ensure that your economy doesn’t stall.”

Although Lapointe said the $14,000 per capita debt was an issue, he said indicators of the overall financial health of the province were relatively steady.

He said the debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio is stable, the economy is growing faster than accumulated deficits and debt servicing as a percentage of revenue is declining.

“Overall, while the high debt level remains a risk, at current levels of economic growth and federal transfers, Nova Scotia is in a sustainable financial position.

“The province, however, has limited flexibility to manage significant negative changes to its fiscal position with such events as large increases in interest rates.”

In another chapter, Lapointe stated his concern that the finance minister hasn’t adequately informed members of the the province’s major public-sector pension plan about the significant change coming this spring.

As of April 1, the Public Service Superannuation Plan, with more than 29,000 working and retired members, will have joint trustees rather than the finance minister as the sole trustee.

Lapointe said when that happens, the province will no longer financially guarantee the plan.

“Members need to be aware that the elimination of this guarantee transfers all future risks of the plan from the government to the plan’s members,” the report said.

The Finance Department said the minister has told plan members directly about the change, but Lapointe disagreed.